When it comes to backpacking, most of us (not just men) have one thing
on our mind as a definite on our ‘to do list’ – and I don’t just mean encountering new cultures.

With the help of a good friend, who I’d refer to as a backpacker in the truest sense of the word, who has been traveling the world for several years, I have compiled a list of the 5 Most Liberating Party Destinations on Earth.

Here they are:

5. Carnival, Rio De Janeiro

If you haven’t heard of this Carnivale’, you are more than likely living in a cave.

This is the world’s most sensuous, vibrant, pulsating party on the planet.

Get ready to explode with joy and music as you move your body to the sensuous vibes
of Samba!

No one does sex appeal like the South Americans!

Although it is not so cheap to fly here, once you get to South America you’ll find it much more affordable and suitable for backpackers / travelers on a budget than Europe or the US etc.

4. Full Moon Party, Thailand.

cheap and affordable

The famous or infamous Thai Ful Moon Party is a must do once in your life time! About 10,000 – 20,000 people from all over the world come to this beach party to see, feel and experience the sensual vibes of international DJs and beautiful people.

The Thai exchange rate also means you can do it cheaply, on a serious budget!

There is usually at least party 1 every month!

3. Golden Sands, Varna – Bulgaria
For the backpacker on a budget looking for a bargain and a wild but cheap and affordable party town – you can’t beat Golden Sands.

A town specifically built purely for partying on the cheap, this place is one wild night club after another, followed by one cheap hotel after another, all right on a beautiful beach.

Germans and Scandinavians descend on this place every summer and live like Kings and Queens with their excellent currency exchange rate. This place is full of young binge drinking libidos looking for – and having a good time.

Don’t go past X Hostel – the best known hostel in the region for insane parties!! Check out the comments people leave about it!

2. Mykonos, Greece

Mykonos is Europe’s Adult playground, its premier party island.

The mix of sun, sand, alcohol, and Greek culture make for an electric party
atmosphere which brings both the rich and not so rich from places as far away as
the US, Australia, Britain, Germany, etc etc.

Something about the island creates an explosive cocktail of freedom where people
seem to forget it all and just be comfortable and open with themselves and with
others.

Mykonos is not the cheapest of places for people looking to party on a budget, but there are affordable options available.

Its best to go during June/July/August as otherwise the tourists have yet to arrive.

1. Purim in Tel Aviv, Israel.

This is easily one of the wildest parties I have ever been to. Unlike many Western
countries, Israel is a place where women have no qualms about the male libido. What really made me laugh was when guys would sit around telling dirty stories and the girls would chip in and beat us at our own game! Now these are some interesting, not to mention really f*ing hot women. And that is just a general statement – when Purim comes, that attitude gets multiplied by 10 and the street parties go insane!! drunk liberal libidos bring out everything you can possibly imagine at Purim!

I don’t know about the other hostels, but the party sure started early at Hayarkon 88 hostel where pretty much anything goes!
___________________________________________________________________________________

Lewis is an Aussie backpacker who has been traveling on the cheap since January 2009. You can find more of the best places on earth to party and travel to cheaply on his blog: Backpacking on the Cheap.

Some photos used under Creative Commons agreement.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dominicspics/820431226 Mykonos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aforum/3028032660/ Rio 1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aforum/3038308772/ Rio 2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt-dinnery/3981483683/ Thailand
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonklinger/409760026 Purim

In this post I will cover:

- Getting free internet on your holiday / backpacking trip.

- Working the system to get the cheapest travel insurance possible.

- THE cheapest international calls

- Cheap cheap cheap Accomodation

- Specific info for each city

Getting Free Internet on you Backpacking trip

When it comes to cheap backpacking, this tip will save you a lot.

I picked up an old Nokia phone with Wifi (EU75) from a gypsy market in Bulgaria two months ago, and I’ve been sponging off other peoples open wifi connections ever since!

The beauty of this is that each time I use my new free internet connection instead of paying Euro 2-5 (sometimes 10!), eventually that money saved means that I will eventually make the cost of the phone back and then start actively saving/making money.

I’ve also downloaded a nifty program called fring, which lets me call others on skype/google talk etc for free or landlines/mobiles for a small fee when at a wifi hotspot. The fee is much less than what you can expect to pay with the normal ‘cheap’ international phone cards.

Working the system to get the cheapest travel insurance possible

Rule number one for having a cheap backpacking experience:
NEVER buy travel insurance from your travel agent! Until you follow the steps below first!
Buying travel insurance from travel agents is like buying Armani from a supermarket. It’s just not cricket ~
Because it is a point of convenience, most people don’t think about shopping around and just go for the first price they get. Which is always a rip off.
My first quote for travel insurance for a 6 month trip to Europe, Middle East and Africa was over AU$600 from my travel agent. No thanks.
I then did a search on the web for the absolute cheapest I could find with (and this is very important) comprehensive, unlimited health insurance, which is all I was interested in. I ended up getting a quote for AU$200 from a company backed by a major international bank. I then took that to my travel agent and they matched and beat it.  So I ended up paying AU$180 instead of AU$600 for the same product!

The cheapest international calls are not where you think

Most of us who are looking for a cheap backpacking experience know not to call home from hostel/hotel phones etc and usually buy calling cards.
Whilst this can be cheap, some countries don’t have the cheap international calling cards, or if they do are not so cheap.
The other option is using a feature called ‘skype out’ – this is part of the normal skype program, except instead of just calling a skype computer, you can call actual landlines and mobiles. For cheap!! : )
For example, I go to an internet cafe in Bulgaria and call home for the skype rate of AU 2 cents per minute instead of AU 26 cents per minute which I would be charged with a calling card/special internet phone booth.
That’s 1/10th of the price! Yahoo has an even cheaper option with their chat program.
Or if the person you are calling has Skype/Yahoo messenger, you can call for free obviously : )

Cheap Accommodation

The worst thing you could do when aiming for a cheap backpacking experience is booking a hostel through hostelworld.
Having worked at a hostel I can tell you they own 80% of the market and can get away with charging you US$2 on top of the 10% booking fee.
Why pay the US$2 every time when you can book free at hostelbookers (dot com)? You get exactly the same thing without being taken advantage of!
Another thing that is handy to know is that that 10% deposit only goes to the website not to the hostel!
Knowing that, why not google the website of the hostel you want and email them directly, asking them if you can keep the 10% if you book through them directly? I’ve done this several times and its especially handy for long term stays.

Specific info for each city : )

Whilst the preceding four points are good general tips, one more thing that will save your hard earned money is to find blogs which cover cheap tips for the city / place you are about to visit.

Have any more good tips for backpacking on the cheap? Please share them with the rest of us below : )

Lewis is an Aussie that got bored with the 9-5 job and has been backpacking cheaply through the Middle East and Europe since January 2009, and like most Aussie backpackers, loves a good bargain. Travelling for so long he’s learnt how to stretch his Aussie dollar as far as it’ll go. If you would like more tips on how to enjoy cheap holidays, visit his blog.

Photo by Carlo Nikora (Flickr)

Having been on the road since January 2009, I’ve got to say I’ve pretty much seen and experienced a lot of it. Now I’m traveling with the girl I love and I couldn’t be happier. Whether you are looking for a few hookups, or something deeper, here are some tips that might get you what you want:

>>Atmosphere of the hostel
Having worked at a couple of hostels, this is perhaps one of the most crucial choices you will make. When looking through Hostelbookers or whichever site you use, pay close attention to two things – atmosphere and location. Here’s why: Atmosphere indicates the level of connection people felt when they were there – is it simply another chain hostel there trying to jam as many people in as possible, to make as much money as possible? Or was the profit motive balanced with good common areas where people found it easy to connect with each other?

And its not just about having a living room – its got to have an element where people can do things together without knowing each other yet, which will give them an opportunity to begin by engaging in small talk. Examples of this can be as simple as two Internet/computer terminals side by side, a pool table, a TV with a comfortable lounge etc etc. They all give opportunities for small talk and then it evolves from there.

Location of the hostel
The other really important tip, especially for hookups (:P) is, where is the hostel located is it in the middle of the city where people are likely to go off and explore and do their own thing for a couple of days, or is it in a pleasant but somewhat isolated area? The wildest hostel I’ve ever been to purported to be in the action, but in reality was 15 minute bus ride away. This meant that all the people that came to have fun, made fun with each other in the hostel itself.

When you have less distractions (ie Ancient Temples, Museums etc etc), you are more likely to stay in the hostel and make connections with the people who are around you. This builds a stronger group, when there is ‘us in here’ not so connected with ‘them out there’.

Go where you know people of your own culture are staying

I know this is going to get a lot of frowns from real backpackers who know the entire point of traveling is to experience different cultures, but the fact is, even tho people want to experience something different, they are still more comfortable with the familiar.

No matter how progressive and open minded you consider yourself to be, you are far more likely to hook up with someone of your own culture (generally speaking) or Enneagram type than with someone who speaks a foreign (especially if English is not your first language) simply because it is human nature to be more trusting of a person if there is a familiarity to them.
Being fluent in the same language also means you are better able to communicate with them – and if you are looking for love and not just sex, then this can be important.

This is not to say it applies all the time. Just most of the time, to most people.

Obviously, drink booze
This is an obvious but really important one – don’t get completely off your face where you regret what you did last night, but a little booze can really oil the wheels of communication and fun Drink at the hostel rather than going out – its not only cheaper, but having a comfortable bed is a lot more likely going to allow a girl to say yes than if the best you can offer her is the romance of a McDonald’s toilet, or the seedy back alley of a nightclub

Whether you’re male or female always carry some condoms. There’s no worse way to ruin a good holiday than to come home with a permanent sexually transmitted disease. Holidays are temporary, diseases can be permanent. Also, its a fact that a lot of girls say no to sex without protection.

Top places to have a good shag in a hostel
Places which tend to be deserted in the middle of the night include the kitchen, the roof, laundry room, or, you could be boring and get away from prying eyes by hiring a private room. I have a friend who became such good friends with the hostel owner, that the owner let him borrow a private room free of charge for a few hours every so often for his shag marathons.

Lewis is an Aussie who has been backpacking and living overseas continuously since January 2009. He presently writes for Gear Up and Play, but also has a Lonely Planet feautured travel blog which focuses on tips for backpacking on the cheaphttp://backpackingonthecheap.blogspot.com

10.  Don’t be boring! A holiday should not only be about relaxing, it should also be about challenging yourself to grow by experiencing and interacting with true local people as much as possible. Staying in a hotel and hanging out with other tourists is not only lame, its expensive. Why not volunteer for a couple of weeks at one of these non profits?
http://www.ivp.org
http://www.mondochallenge.org
http://www.helpx.net

9.  If your destination is expensive to fly directly to, use this method.

8.  Hegel and bargain! This is standard in the middle east and parts of Europe! You would be foolish not to step out of your comfort zone and have a different cultural experience.

7.  Think you’ve found a bargain card to call home with? Think again, go to an Internet cafe and buy Skype out credit for calling landlines. Or if you want even cheaper than that, buy yahoo credit

6.  If you know you are going to a super expensive city for the next few days, buy your food in the city or country before.

5.  Why pay the extra US$2 booking fee when using hostelworld when can avoid it by using Hostelbookers

4.  Why not live like a local and use a supermarket and hostel kitchen to cook your own food instead buying out? Ask the locals for the cheapest supermarket in the area.

3.  When booking flights, use a site which has most if not all the discount airlines

2.  Search the web for tips by frugal travelers who have been to major cities before
such as this one.

1.  Question and think different. Ask locals how they save money.Never take the
easiest option when a service is offered! ie. exchanging cash at the airport because its easy is moronic!

More ways to save money whilst travelling

Lewis is an Aussie that got bored with the 9-5 job and has been backpacking cheaply through the Middle East and Europe for since January 2009, and like most aussie backpackers, love a good bargain. Travelling for so long he’s learnt how to stretch his Aussie dollar as far as it’ll go. If you would like more tips on how to enjoy cheap holidays, visit his blog.

CHEAP BACKPACKING/CHEAP FLIGHTS:Stick your tongue out at high flight prices

Everyone wants a cheap backpacking experience, and getting a cheap flight is often the most

expensive part of your trip.

I think most people are aware of the discount flight websites like whichbudget.com etc etc, but what most people don’t know is that this should only be a starting point for you.

Back when I was shopping around for flights to Egypt from Australia, I spent hours searching on these discount websites and the cheapest I could find were for AU$2200 return. Most of the sites were the same give or take $100. When I would go to travel agents they would be even more expensive!

And this is where the beauty of introducing competition into the market comes in.

I printed out the cheapest quote from the internet and I took it to a travel agent, told them I had a cheap flight from the web and without telling them how cheap it was, I asked them what their best price would be.

This way, when they know they have competition, they are more likely to give you a lower price than when you first approach them.

If their quote is higher than the website I would show them the website quote and ask them to beat it. They would then do so, and print me out a new quote. I would then take that quote to the next travel agent next door and ask them to beat that new one I just got from the competition.  After they print the quote out, I thank them and tell them I will think about it.

I would then do this for 3 0r 4 travel agents until I was sure they couldn’t go any cheaper.

I would make sure flight centre was the last one on my list because they have a price beat guarantee and you don’t want to use that until you already have the lowest price.

I ended up reducing it from AU$2200 to AU$1700 return.

That was 7 months ago – these days flights are much cheaper and you should be able to use this method to get flights for even less!

More ways to save money whilst travelling

Lewis is an Aussie that got bored with the 9-5 job and has been backpacking cheaply through the Middle East and Europe for since January 2009, and like most aussie backpackers, love a good bargain. Travelling for so long he’s learnt how to stretch his Aussie dollar as far as it’ll go. If you would like more tips on how to enjoy cheap holidays, visit his blog.